Fulham FC — Fulham v Southampton — 6 January 2018

53

crowd and they let the Fulham

team know what they thought

of them. What was even worse

was that Arsenal illegally loaned

their star player Jock Rutherford

to Chelsea for the game, and he

scored two of the goals. Fulham,

you might say, were hoist by their

own petard. Salt was rubbed into

their wounds by the fact that

Norris’ wife Edith presented the

trophy to the Pensioners.

Arthur Bourke, writing in

the Islington Daily Gazette,

thought the result was suitable

recompense for Fulham’s

unsporting behaviour in the

Quarter-Finals. He also noted

a lot of anti-Fulham feeling at

the match, in the crowd and in

the press room. He did feel that

Fulham had been the better team,

though, until a sudden hailstorm

seemed to shake Chelsea out of

their lethargy.

The Victory Cup was never

contested again, although the

London Combination morphed

into the well-known competition

for reserve teams that survived

for another 93 years. Life slowly

returned to normal; Fulham went

back to Division Two, finishing

sixth, and waited 76 years to

reach another Final, when they

got to two in the same year - the

FA Cup Final and the Anglo-

Scottish Cup Final. And Norris?

He was later discovered to have

pocketed £125 from the sale of

the Arsenal team bus and banned

from football for life.

It’s interesting to ponder what

London life might have been

like if Norris hadn’t stuck his

interfering nose into football.

Well, there’s a parallel universe

out there somewhere, where Mr

Norris changed trains and met an

untimely end in the calamitous

Slough Rail Accident of 1900.

And today in that universe,

Chelsea don’t exist, Fulham,

playing at Stamford Bridge,

are one of the powerhouses of

Europe, perennial winners of the

Premier League and Champions

League, Woolwich Arsenal are

a struggling League Two side

in Plumstead, and Tottenham

are looking forward to their

upcoming North London derby

with fellow top-flight side Barnet.

Thank you Mr Norris.

crowd and they let the Fulham though, until a sudden hailstorm

for reserve teams that survived

for another 93 years. Life slowly

returned to normal; Fulham went

back to Division Two, finishing

sixth, and waited 76 years to

reach another Final, when they

got to two in the same year - the

FA Cup Final and the Anglo-

Scottish Cup Final. And Norris?

He was later discovered to have

pocketed £125 from the sale of

the Arsenal team bus and banned

from football for life.

London life might have been

like if Norris hadn’t stuck his

interfering nose into football.

Well, there’s a parallel universe

out there somewhere, where Mr

Norris changed trains and met an

untimely end in the calamitous

Slough Rail Accident of 1900.

And today in that universe,

Chelsea don’t exist, Fulham,

playing at Stamford Bridge,

are one of the powerhouses of

Europe, perennial winners of the

Premier League and Champions

League, Woolwich Arsenal are

Cup Tales

The Victory Cup

Action from the defeat to Chelsea

FFC-050-Victory Cup.indd 53 04/01/2018 12:20